Startup Helps Reduce Your Utility Bill By Shifting Energy Use

Startup Smart Grid Billing, which recently graduated from the Greenstart incubator program, aims to help manage the process of reducing energy consumption during times of peak power grid use (known as “energy time-shifting”) in exchange for discounts on electricity bills.

According to GigaOM, the company is testing its energy-monitoring wireless-connected plugs and software for analyzing consumption data. These enable it to find out in real-time what appliances could reduce their electricity use. This unused power can then be sold to a local grid operator and the revenue shared with customers. Smart Grid Billing’s CEO, Henrik Westergaard, told GigaOM:

In real time, we know how many kilowatt hours will be used and electric prices, and we make a decision for all the devices we control and figure out how many megawatts we can move around and shift in real time.

Smart Grid Billing is planning to sell its service to businesses first and will soon be trialling it at a golf course to help reduce the cost of charging a fleet of electric golf carts.